Murder, Wrath and Enmity (v. 21-26)
“You shall not murder” was one of the ten commandments in God’s law. The Jews applied it to the external deed, and in the law of Moses there were regulations for how a murderer was to be judged. Jesus now says that sin is as much in the heart as it is in the deed. Even to be angry at one’s brother is a sin, which also falls under judgment. There were offences which were prosecuted in the local court, and there were grosser felonies which were brought to the Council in Jerusalem. The meaning of Jesus’ words are that the one who is angry and insults another person is guilty of something which is just as culpable. Even wrath should be prosecuted by the courts. The one who says “you fool” (in Hebrew ‘Raka’), a insult which did not seem to be one of the worse ones and is similar to “you ass”, he is worthy of being brought to the Council. These are of course not instructions for civil legislation. It is Jesus’ way of showing how serious these sins are. The third example shows that we are guilty before God and that we are liable to his judgment. If someone calls his brother “fool” (which for the Jews also meant that he was ungodly), he is liable to the hell of fire.
Therefore, it is so important to be reconciled, if one knows that one is an enemy to someone. One cannot bring an offering to God if one does not want to do all that is possible to be reconciled to one’s brother. When Jesus said this, the temple was still in place and it was natural for his hearers to bring their offerings there. But the words still concern us today, our offerings of prayer and ourselves. Not even these offerings can be brought forward, if one is not willing be reconciled. Irreconcilability bars the way to God, here in this life and on the day of judgment. We are still “on the way” and we should be reconciled immediately. When the day of accountability comes, it is too late. To then have a opponent, whom one did not want to forgive, that means that one has a prosecutor, by whom one will be handed over to the Judge, and so one will end up in prison. Then it is too late. No one can pay his or her dept to the last penny.
Adultery (v. 27-30)
In this next part Jesus “fulfills” the law and shows its deepest meaning. Once again the Son of God is speaking. Only He has authority to say “but I say to you” and go beyond what God already has said in His Word. And once again we see that Jesus does not abolish the law, but on the contrary, sharpens it. It does not only concern the external deed, but also the inner desires of the heart. And this is serious. It is better to sacrifice what seems to be a part of oneself than to be completely lost. There is namely something in us, which does not come from God. One cannot affirm that. Life is not about ‘self-realization’ and ‘living out one’s desires’. It is about realizing God’s meaning with the life that is given to us. And that meaning is clearly put forward in God’s law.
“Gehenna” (hell of fire) was originally the name of the valley outside of the southern wall of Jerusalem. During the apostate before Jerusalem’s destruction, altars for Moloch had been built there and children were sacrificed, burnt in fire. Therefore, the place was detested and the name became to denote the place where the unfaithful will end up after the judgment. It is obvious from several places in the Gospels that Jesus thinks that there is such a place.
Divorce (v. 31-32)
In the law of Moses (Deut 24:1) a man was allowed to divorce his wife by giving her a certificate of divorce. Jesus now tells his disciples that they cannot act like that. If they do, they commit adultery. A marriage can be dissolved “on the ground of sexual immorality”. If one of the spouses breaks the marriage and does not want to repent, the other is no longer bound, but may divorce and remarry. In this way, our evangelical church has always applied this word.
What Jesus here says is, like so many other things in the Sermon on the Mount, not meant to be a civil legislation, which everyone is to live by. It is God’s demands, and the disciples know that. It is not really law, but a consequence of the gospel. It is a new way of living, which is possible when one knows that one is just as worthy of being judged like any other evildoer, but who has been forgiven everything and is allowed into the kingdom of Christ out of pure mercy. Then husband and wife is able to forgive each other and realize the meaning of the marriage. They know that they are joined and made one by God Himself and that it is their mission in life to help and serve each other.
Oaths and Assertions (v. 33-37)
The lively and talkative people of the Orient have a need for spicing their speech with strong assertions. Oaths played an important role for the Jews, even in their every day speech. One took God as a witness, bound oneself with an oath to keep one’s promises, renounced the help of God if one was not serious, and so on. In our language there are remains of this in some curses, which original meaning is that one surrender oneself to the evil powers if one does not tell the truth. In Israel one swore to God instead. It was against this that the Pharisees and all the pious Israelites reacted. One was not to take the name of God in vain. As a way out of this, they chose instead to swear to something else, which also was holy. Thus, they formally fulfilled the commandment. Once again, Jesus demands more. It is about a radical obedience and reverence for God, which leads to the fact that one lives wholly according to his will. Then one does not use surrogate oaths, which do not directly mention God, but still draw the holy into a common context. Jesus shows that the fact that one invokes something indeed has something to do with God. If it did not belong to God, it would not be worthy of invoking. It is not even possible to invoke one’s own head because it does not belong to us. We are completely dependent on God, and he demands that we are completely truthful, so that no oaths are even necessary. It is enough with a truthful yes or no. Nothing else is necessary. It is only evil - or “from the Evil One”, as the words also can be translated.
As earlier, this cannot be transformed into a civil law either. The disciple understands that it is God’s demands and tries to follow it. He knows that one cannot use God to emphasize one’s own statements. But in an evil world, there might a need for formal assertions, where a man, out of love for God and devotion for truth, takes him as a witness and affirms the truth before his face. Such oaths Paul used, and Jesus’ words “truly, truly I say to you” are such formal assertions.
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